Free Republic

RALEIGH -- Abortion-rights advocates urged North Carolina health officials on Friday to focus on science and not politics as they update rules for abortion clinics. The updates have been submitted for public comment, including Friday's meeting in Raleigh. About 60 people, many of them wearing shirts promoting abortion rights, crowded into a Department of Health and Human Services and about a dozen had to stand. About 15 people spoke, including several doctors who stressed the importance of access to abortion services. Only a few speakers favored stricter regulations. The department will consider public comments until the end of January before...

Sounds impressive until you realize that Biden’s currently rocking two percent of the vote nationally in a Democratic primary involving Hillary and Elizabeth Warren. Speaking of which, Ben Carson against Hillary in North Carolina: Dead even at 44, which is two points better than Chris Christie and Mike Huckabee do against her.The Romney/Carson last-men-standing primary debate before Super Tuesday will be epic, my friends. Ben Carson leads the way for the Republicans with 19% to 15% for Jeb Bush, 14% each for Chris Christie and Mike Huckabee, 11% for Paul Ryan, 7% for Rick Perry, 5% each for Ted...

The key vote on the bill that funds the Obama amnesty and Obamacare as well as the rest of government was the vote on the rule that put it on the floor, and it barely slid through by two votes. Any Congressman who voted for it voted to continue Obamacare and to allow Obama to proceed with his amnesty decree, because this bill funds both with no restrictions. The only North Carolinian to stand up and vote to stop this bill from proceeding was our own Walter Jones. The rest of the NC ''Republican'' congressmen voted for a piece of...

The cromnibus had an unlikely savior Thursday afternoon in the form of a lame-duck lawmaker who used to raise reindeer. Rep. Kerry Bentivolio (R-Mich.), who lost his primary earlier this year, was originally among the conservative Republicans who voted against the rule. Without the help of Democrats, Republicans could only lose 17 of their own to pass the rule, which sets up floor debate for the underlying "cromnibus" spending bill. Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) intervened once there were 18 Republican defectors — and not a single Democrat voting "yes." Many Democrats will vote against the government spending measure because they...

A record number of rogue Christian pastors are endorsing candidates from the pulpit this election cycle, using Sunday sermons to defiantly flout tax rules. Their message to the IRS: Sue me. But the tax agency is doing anything but. Although the IRS was sued itself for not enforcing the law and admitted about 100 churches may be breaking the rules, the pastors and their critics alike say the agency is looking the other way. The agency refuses to say if it is acting. At the same time, the number of pastors endorsing candidates in what they call Pulpit Freedom Sunday...

Although these bans aren't enforceable under federal law, a coalition of atheists are now lobbying to remove language from constitutions in Maryland and six other states that prevent people who do not believe in God from holding public office. Along with Maryland, the constitutions of Arkansas, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas all bear language prohibiting people who do not believe in God from holding office according to The New York Times. And the Openly Secular coalition wants the language removed. "If it was on the books that Jews couldn't hold public office, or that African-Americans or women...

RALEIGH The question of whether high school students should be taught that America’s status is “exceptional” compared with other nations dominated debate Monday over the redesigned Advanced Placement U.S. History course. Larry Krieger, a retired history teacher and national activist, urged the State Board of Education to demand that the College Board revise the AP U.S. History course because its 70-page framework omits the mention of “American exceptionalism” that was in previous guidelines. Instead of teaching that America is “a force for good in the world” and stands for democracy and freedom, Krieger said, the new course is designed to...

Funny penalties...greatest goalkeeper ever!

Sixteen North Carolina judges have either resigned or retired after gay marriage became legal in the state last month when a judge ruled that an amendment to the state's constitution banning same-sex marriage was unconstitutional. In October, U.S. District Judge Max Cogburn of Asheville struck down the ban and ruled the amendment unconstitutional in response to a Charlotte-based lawsuit. Reports from the administrative office of the courts note that "between the ruling on Oct. 10 and the end of the month, 16 magistrates left their jobs, but the state wouldn't release why they left," Time Warner Cable News-Charlotte reports. The...

The state of North Carolina has given Jonathan Gruber the boot, firing the ObamaCare architect after he was caught on camera repeatedly calling American voters “stupid.” Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) went “On The Record” tonight, explaining that Gruber was hired one year ago to help with a health care plan that dealt with Medicaid recipients and the uninsured. Meadows said that Gruber was supposed to be an unbiased individual, but after these reports, the auditor decided that he’s not so unbiased after all. …

The Senate narrowly rejected legislation to authorize the Keystone XL pipeline on Tuesday, handing a defeat to the oil industry and dealing a major blow to Louisiana Democrat Mary Landrieu, who staked her political career on the outcome. The Senate voted 59-41 for the legislation, falling one vote shy of the 60 needed for passage under the deal bringing it to the floor. But Keystone supporters insisted the defeat would be short-lived. Republican leaders are vowing to try again after they take over the chamber in January — when they will have more than enough votes to get a measure...

Howeird Dean-- once chair of the DNC, once Governor of Vermont, who grew up at the Maidstone Golf Club in the Hamptons, attended prep school both in the US and in the UK, went to Yale, dodged the draft-- is having a meltdown again.Once famous for melting down on the air after coming in third in the Iowa caucuses, thereby ensuring he won nothing else, Dean is complaining that Obamacare was written by a bunch of elitists who don’t understand Americans.Well, duh: They’re Democrats. “The core problem under this damn law is that it was put together by a bunch...

FULL TITLE: Wife of convicted sex offender pleads guilty to running a daycare centre as a front for a child porn ring The wife of a convicted sex offender has pleaded guilty to running an unregistered daycare centre as the front for a child porn production operation at a North Carolina home. Elizabeth Holland Mills, 35, faces up to 30 years in jail after pleading guilty to one count of manufacturing child porn following her arrest alongside four others in January. In August, her husband Bailey Joe Mills, 34, pleaded guilty to the same charge after police discovered Facebook messages...

A mother in Union County, North Carolina, told WJZY-TV that her son, a freshman at Porter Ridge High School, brought home a worksheet on Islam containing some questionable answers. She was upset enough over the assignment that she contacted the school and her local news station after reviewing the material. The sentence that bothered the mom the most stated, “Most Muslims’ faith is stronger than the average Christian.” -snip It should be noted that school officials have yet to provide a completed version of the worksheet to the news outlet. Though it appears that the high school has not disputed...

Hadn't watched the McLaughlin Group in quite some time as they had lost or jettisoned some of the more interesting panelists (and no, Jay Carney wasn't one of them!). The lineup seems to have stabilized although these poor folks are looking O-L-D...perhaps because they are. Felt bad for McLaughlin who apparently was wearing someone else's suit, so baggy was it on his frame. I'm not condemning anyone for aging or illness but it was a bit alarming. In the days before cable news and the internet, the McLaughlin Group were one of the few doses of political candor and a...

**SNIP** While Cannon dodged jail for now, his appearance in court continued a 366-day free-fall for one of the city’s longest-serving officials, who first joined the City Council in 1993. On Nov. 6, 2013, Cannon was elected mayor, jubilantly thanking voters for helping him realize a “life goal.” He was arrested in March, charged with accepting more than $50,000 in bribes from undercover FBI agents. He pleaded guilty in June to a corruption charge and was sentenced by Whitney on Oct. 14. At the time, Cannon’s attorneys asked that their client be admitted to a prison alcohol-treatment program.

In a speech given at Long Beach earlier this year, President Obama's new nominee for Attorney General, Loretta Lynch, specifically called out voter ID laws as racist. The remarks came at the end of a long speech, explaining the examples that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela set for people. Ms. Lynch then began talking about the inequities that she sees in the United States... She continued, "50 years after the march on Washington, 50 years after the civil rights movement, we stand in this country at a time when we see people trying to take back so...

On Tuesday night, Republicans won big: They picked up governorships in blue states like Maryland, Massachusetts, and Illinois, and they held House seats in competitive districts with embarrassing incumbents like Michael Grimm of New York, who physically threatened a reporter and is under indictment for tax evasion. But their biggest win by far was taking control of the U.S. Senate. As of this writing, Republicans had already secured 52 Senate seats, thanks to knocking off Democratic incumbents or replacing retiring Democrats in Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, Montana, North Carolina, South Dakota, and West Virginia. Another GOP pick up is probable in...

WASHINGTON – Sen. Mitch McConnell appears on the verge of achieving his lifelong goal to serve as majority leader in the upper chamber after easily dispatching Democratic Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes in Kentucky Tuesday night, winning an unprecedented sixth six-year term in the process. The race was expected to be close according to the late polls but, as was experienced throughout Election Day, the surveys seemed to undercount Republican strength to a substantial degree. With all of the commonwealth’s precincts reporting, McConnell ended up with 806,689 votes, good for 56 percent of the total while Grimes garnered 584,625,...

Clay Aiken came in second yet again. The American Idol and Celebrity Apprentice runner-up was defeated by incumbent Rep. Renee Ellmers in Tuesday's election, losing his bid to represent North Carolina's 2nd Congressional District, The Associated Press reports. Aiken, 35, won the Democratic nomination after his opponent in the race died suddenly during the primary campaign. If the Idol alum had won, he would have been the first openly gay congressman elected in the South.